Who'd Like A Cocktail? #87

Like you needed a reason not to piss Zatanna off....

• BATTLEFIELDS #7 - Anna Kharkova returns from The Night Witches, joining a fighter squadron, and was anyone surprised when the NKVD offcer turned out to be a coward?
• GREEN ARROW #1 - and we're back with the grim and gritty Green Arrow, newly separated from Black Canary and patrolling Star City's built-in-five-minutes forest. Oh, and the mysterious Isable Rochev? I'm going out on a limb and guessing that'll turn out to be Ollie's mother.
• GREEN LANTERN CORPS #49 - and the big bad guy behind the Alpha Lanterns' revolt is revealed as Cyborg Superman. And if Tony Bedard breaks up Kyle Rayner and Soranik Natu over this Jade nightmare Kyle's having, I may have to send him a harsh letter. Can't the guy have one relationship that doesn't go down the pan?
• JUSTICE LEAGUE: GENERATION LOST #4 - I thought it was kinda cool that it was Booster who worked out that Max Lord was behind the JLI getting together again, though the new Rocket Red seems a little . . . forced, I think.
• JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE RISE OF ARSENAL #4 - I for one won't be following Arsenal into the pages of Titans; that one-shot where Ryan Choi's Atom got killed off was enough for me.
• POWER GIRL #13 - the comic that I've been dreading for some time finally turned up: Judd Winick's first Power Girl issue. As expected, it was nowhere near as much fun as the Palmiotti/Gray issues that preceded it and, judging by the solicitations for subsequent issues, it's probably not going to be much fun either. That said, so far it wasn't dreadful; the art was kinda nice, for example, and the Justice League: Generation Lost tie in was no surprise. I guess we see where this goes.
• TIME MASTERS trade paperback - picked this up on something of a whim; I like Rip Hunter as a character and time travel's always a good plot device but it was something of a shame to discover Hunter's a bit of a dick in this story.
• ZATANNA #2 - quickly rising to the top of my list (despite being last alphabetically) Paul Dini continues to write a good fun series with some lovely art. Fuseli may sound like a pasta dish but the nightmare demon almost managed to give Zatanna a run for her money. Despite ending up in the top hat, I think he might show up again. And the ghost on the last page? That's not going to end well!

And what made me smile:

Some people will put any old crap on their blog . . .

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #84

Robotman gets caught out staring at Saturn Girl's behind

• BLACKEST NIGHT DIRECTOR'S CUT #1 - finally got round to picking this up, partly to satisfy the collector in me. The cover gallery's nice, the script to issue #1 gives an insight into how comics are made and the unused scenes - particularly the Rainbow Raiders suicide - were interesting. Certainly not essential to the Blackest Night series, but an enjoyable add-on.
• THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #34 - I'm sure some of us have seen this type of story before: a two parter involving time travel almost guarantees a couple of things 1) that the first issue will have odd, seemingly insignificant details dotted throughout (in this case the moving time sphere and the pink fluff) and 2) that the second issue will explain these as being caused by the same characters working behind the scenes to ensure their present selves don't see them. It's not a bad story, but neither is it anything above ordinary - it seems like an exercise for Straczynski to be able to tie up the various anomalies in an interesting way next month.
• GREEN LANTERN #54 - Atrocitus comes back, along with Red Lantern cat Dex-Star who makes a great entrance. The entities of the various Corps are named and shown to Jordan and the others and the mysterious cloaked figure frees Sodam Yat from Daxam's star. Oh, and Lobo turns up leading to a great next issue caption: Lobo punches people with rings. Hard.
• GREEN LANTERN CORPS #48 - Tony Bedard's first issue as writer isn't too bad; admittedly I don't think he's got Atrocitus's voice down yet but John Stewart's handled well.
• JUSTICE LEAGUE: GENERATION LOST #2 - well, I guess those first couple of pages answer the critics who wondered about how Max Lord would deal with the physical evidence of his crimes / existence. Nothing much happens apart from scenes where the main characters are all shown attempting to convince other heroes that they're right and being turned down. But hey, always nice to see Jaime Reyes's Blue Beetle.
• JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE RISE OF ARSENAL #3 - oh, you gotta go down before you can come up or some such other homily springs to mind with this. Arsenal goes back to the dope, then gets forced to go cold turkey and starts hallucinating his dead daughter Lian. One more issue to go.
• POWER GIRL #12 - I know this series is continuing, but this issue for me feels like the end. It's a wonderful, wonderful wrap up issue that still leaves plots not so much hanging as available. Having set the bar so high on this series, Palmiotti, Gray and Conner have almost guaranteed a slump in quality when Winick takes over next month but I don't want to tarnish this last issue snapshot with negativity about the new team. Power Girl has, for just over a year, been consistently one of the best books out there: fun, well-written, wonderful art, and characters that you end up caring about. There's no way Blackest Night could have made a cross-over into this world and as much as I enjoyed that series, I'm glad Power Girl never had to deal with it in these pages. I'm seriously going to miss this book even though I plan on sticking with the title if you see what I mean.
• PROJECT SUPERPOWERS: CHAPTER TWO #9 - okay, so all the heroes are piling on Zeus and after spending ages just growling Catman - sorry, Man-Cat finally gets to tear up the imposter Kid Terror who, paradoxically, may turn out to be just what they need against the mad god.
• TEEN TITANS #83 - oh god where do I start? I've stuck with different titles through rough patches before but I'm seriously considering dropping this until Henderson either leaves or is kicked off as writer. Changeling's yelling out "Raven!" every five minutes; Superboy and Wonder Girl are apparently splitting up because... well, I'm not sure, really; Changeling's yelling out "Raven!" every five minutes; Aquagirl fancies Superboy; Changeling's yelling out "Raven!" every five minutes; two doctors spout more pseudo-science nonsense than ever before; and why the hell would Changeling become a chimpanzee to mend a broken computer?! This is becoming a truly dreadful title with every issue, a car crash that I can't help staring at. Someone please tell me Henderson's going to be fired soon?
• Co-feature: COVEN OF THREE - not a bad start to a tale about three teenage magicians; always nice to see Traci 13 (even if she looks younger than when she was in Tales of the Unexpected a couple of years ago) and I wonder how Black Alice will be reconciled with her Secret Six appearances but this is still better than the main story.

And what made me smile will surprise no regular reader of this blog: Power Girl #12 just delivers so much this month like this -

and this - 

and this -

Once again a big thank you to Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Amanda Conner for their excellent run on this book. Those of you who haven't picked it up can get the whole thing in two trade paperbacks with the second one out this year.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #80

Power Girl delivers an ass kicking to order

Bumper crop this week following last week's volcano-caused delay.

• Battlefields: The Firefly And His Majesty #2 - ah, humour building up to what will be a horrible, horrible ending. Damn, this series is good.
• The Brave And The Bold #33 - as soon as I saw Batgirl I sussed what was going on but you know what? It worked. Easily the best of the Straczynski issues so far, this quiet tale was a little sad but handled really well. Plus it has the gorgeous, gorgeous artwork of Cliff Chiang.
• Crossed: Family Values #1 - another foray into the world of the Crossed, this looks to be as nasty as the Garth Ennis series; even without the infection, we're dealing with a incestuous rapist so things can only get worse.
• The Dark Tower: Battle of Jericho Hill #5 - the preludes are done as Roland is left alone and in search of the Tower.
• Green Lantern #53 - so, who's the short guy in the cloak at the start of the issue? The scarred Guardian somehow regenerated? And why is Lex Luthor acting like a real estate agent? We all know how that turned out in Superman Returns.
• Green Lantern Corps #47 - man, Arisia's pissed and the Guardians know it! For once, after the Lanterns stand up for themselves, it looks as though the Guardians might actually be learning how to deal with people.
• Justice League of America #44 - okay, this book is still a little clunky in places but it seems to be getting better on the whole.
• Justice League: The Rise of Arsenal #2 - poor old Roy; grief makes you say some pretty mean and stupid things to those you love, doesn't it?
• Justice Society of America #38 - the Joker begging to be executed alongside the Batman? That kinda makes sense!
• Power Girl #11 - I suspect this may be the last but one issue of fun, well-written superheroics from this title. Power Girl goes up against the Ultra-Humanite who's tucked up in Terra's body and while that battle seems resolved, there's still Satanna to deal with.
• Teen Titans #82 - I am a slave to various titles, I see that now. I have to pick them up no matter how little I'm enjoying them. Teen Titans is a case in point as the writing is just awful (Superboy and Kid Flash fist-bumping after saying they need to bury their friends? Ugh. Wonder Girl being a stroppy cow and not talking to Superboy even though he's just returned from the dead? Ugh.) and even the art's become worse - Raven gets kidnapped at the end and the last panel (complete with clichéd "Nooo!" from Beast Boy) is the smallest on the page? Come on, that whole last page was just too cramped and badly  laid out. Can someone please get another team on this book?

But this made me smile:

As much fun as Power Girl is, she can be as mean and brutal as she needs to be when her friend's in danger.